I brought huge golden and red beets home from the produce market with great expectations. After I put them on to boil, the smell wafted through the house, and I caught myself in a daydream. I guess my mom cooked fresh beets when I was a kid. The pungent aroma reminded me of her dinners. I recalled her salad of iceberg lettuce and sliced beets. I hated beets then. Things have changed. After years of culinary school, food-television viewing, and eating beets every way possible, I have been reformed.

One of the best tastes of summer has to be beets. Beets show up colorfully atop the goat-cheese ravioli at Mirabella Cafe, in Cherry Hill. Chef-owner Joe Palombo roasts and cubes yellow and red Chiogga heirloom beets and even reduces beets as the sauce. Fried shallots and toasted pine nuts add crunch. Tria, the Center City wine-cheese-beer salons, offers them in a roasted beet jam (an earthy puree of beets, balsamic vinegar, honey, Dijon and red onion) served with a wedge of Haystack Mountain's Haystack Peak cheese.

Of all the maligned vegetables, none rank higher in the Vegephobes List of the 10 Most Hated than those that can trace their roots back to roots. You know the culprits - beets, parsnips, turnips, celeriacs, rutabagas, kohlrabies - names that force all but the most ardent vegetarian to seek asylum at the nearest fast-food stand. Some of us have been so successful at dodging these healthful wonders that we've never tasted them at all. (But we know we wouldn't like them.) And for the few who have ventured a taste?

'Simplicity is everything. " With that brief acceptance speech, chef John Kennedy summed up his approach to food. His remark also may reflect the judges' collective thinking in choosing Kennedy as winner of the Great American Salad Toss competition this month. Kennedy's artful composition of heirloom baby beets and greens maintained the true tastes and textures of his ingredients. As executive chef at Dakin House, the private dining mansion of Merck & Co. in Somerville, N.J., Kennedy values honesty in food.

It was time to bring out your best beets and dandiest dandelions. The Norristown Garden Club held it annual show Wednesday and Thursday at Plymouth Meeting Mall. Ribbons and awards were given in 66 classes.

Where the turning seasons still mean something, the vegetables of autumn have a unique poignancy, a "get it while you can" quality that makes the simplest salad special. Yet the chilly nights that spell the end of snap beans, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants also bring sweetness to Swiss chard and kale. Tender lettuces flourish; beets and leeks are in prime condition. Fresh shell beans make their brief appearance. The potato harvest is in. Soon enough it will be the winter squash and cabbage time, but for a brief moment we have the best of all worlds: high summer and harvest both at once, gardens and markets overflowing, some of just about everything - except peas, of course, but you can't have it all. Though tomatoes and peppers are available in some form year round, the time when they are fresh, local, inexpensive, and, in the case of tomatoes, tasty, is about to be over for most of us. So if you have the freezer space, now's the time to put plenty by for future enjoyment.

Usually vegetables and desserts are opposed in an either/or kind of way - as in eat the former or you won't get the latter. These days, however, pastry chefs are digging deep for inspiration and whipping up dishes that are definitively both. Take Peter Scarola at R2L, who has manipulated fennel, endive, parsnip, and squash to do his sweet bidding. "Vegetables can make dessert a bit lighter but also more adventuresome," he says. "Used in the right way, they can also be a nice alternative to what we think of as classic recipes and create a surprise element.

Admittedly, kielbasa isn't the sexiest item in the deli case, but it is perhaps the most versatile. The garlicky smoked meat has been the base of many clean-out-the-refrigerator dinners. Best of all, when the well-flavored kielbasa is an ingredient, my impromptu specials are well-received. The hits include a skillet dinner of sauteed onions, garlic, caraway seeds, cabbage and kielbasa; cooked lentils with kielbasa, either served hot as a stew or cold in a salad; bean soup with kielbasa; grilled kielbasa with onions and a mustard sauce, and kielbasa and sweet-potato soup.

NEW YORK - If there were a Food Olympics, beets would be overtaking kale in the produce competition. In the flavor event, two unlikely competitors, lavender and sriracha, would be out front, with their counterparts, elderflower and habañero, close behind. Matcha, the trendy powdered green-tea drink, would dominate the beverage field, while waffles would be leaving cupcakes in the dust (or perhaps crumbs). And, in a stunning upset, a Vermont goatherd would take the gold in the confection class, beating out powerhouse European chocolatiers with his goat's-milk caramels.

As the weather warms and the days lengthen, the long-awaited glory of spring has arrived with splashes of pink and yellow in the trees, with green leaves and buds bursting out all over. The gentle breezes beckon us outside, and colorful lighter fare beckons at the table. Paschal lamb and spring chickens are available at the market, but my tastes turn to veggies, especially the tender shoots, sprouts, and spears of spring. At this time of year, it's a snap to add a splash of brightness and pizzazz to every plate at every meal.

Usually vegetables and desserts are opposed in an either/or kind of way - as in eat the former or you won't get the latter. These days, however, pastry chefs are digging deep for inspiration and whipping up dishes that are definitively both. Take Peter Scarola at R2L, who has manipulated fennel, endive, parsnip, and squash to do his sweet bidding. "Vegetables can make dessert a bit lighter but also more adventuresome," he says. "Used in the right way, they can also be a nice alternative to what we think of as classic recipes and create a surprise element.

The steamboat conveying Andrew Jackson up the Ohio River toward his tumultuous 1829 inauguration had brooms lashed to its bow, symbolizing Old Hickory's vow to clean up Washington. But sweeping out Washington's Augean stables, like painting the Golden Gate Bridge, is steady work, so steady it never ends. Neither do the policies that cosset sugar producers. These immortal measures just received the Senate's benediction because they illustrate the only law Washington can be counted on to respect.

THE ADAGE says "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. " As newlyweds Eric and Autumn Levine discovered, that wisdom also applies to women. "When we first began dating, he made me these delicious scallops," said Autumn Levine. "I knew then he was a keeper, because I don't cook. " An attorney by day, Eric Levine enjoys cooking on nights and weekends. He has fond childhood memories of his mother's honey-mustard chicken and his father's grilling, but he didn't become interested in cooking until he hit college.

On Sunday afternoon from 2 to 6, Whole Foods Market Jenkintown and the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture transform the market's parking lot into the Fresh Beets Music & Food Festival, featuring performances, kids' activities, a local celebrity chef demonstration, local farmers, and more. The purpose of the free festival is to promote healthy eating. Festivities begin with a jazz performance by the David Joel Quartet. Other performances include children's music by Peter Moses, the R&B acoustic sounds of David & Melissa, the Jeffhouse Band, and reggae by New Kings of Rhythm.

A new weapon against snow and ice was used on selected Chester County roads and sidewalks this winter - beet juice. It was added to the salt-based brine put on roads before storms and enabled the solution to work at lower temperatures. But those trying to recall whether there were swaths of red-stained concrete, don't bother. "There's no redness at all," said Jack Stewart, a project manager for the county's Facilities Department. "When you put it down, it's more brownish and looks like the road is wet. " The substance is a by-product of sugar beets, which are used to make sweetener and animal feed, officials said.